whether or not president obama wins reelection, he is still the president through the new year. who wins the presidential election tends to be influential. guest: absolutely. the government would continue functioning, even if the country goes off the fiscal cliff and the issues are not resolved by december 31 when most of them will take effect. the government will continue functioning. to the broader point, yes, president obama would still be in office through the end of the year. whoever takes over the white house, if it is president obama staying in the white house or governor romney, it would change the dynamic. there's a thought that if governor romney wins, there would be some sort of some sortor temporary measure would be tried to keep everything into the new administration to let the new administration takes its hands on these issues. i'm not sure democrats would want to go along with that. but there's a school thought which says that. i would not be surprised if the white house is working on strategies as we speak to try to come up with proposals they could offer during